"Check out our latest case study - This DIY DER of a 1929 miner's cabin in the Colorado mountains is our first project from Colorado. As an ongoing work-in-progress, it is a Thousand Home Challenge Candidate. Since 2011 it has achieved a 51%…"

Linda Wigington distinguished between deep retrofits & deep energy reductions, thus expanding the range of strategies & tactics from which we might propose when engaging with people, the ones who choose.See More

Linda Wigington distinguished between deep retrofits & deep energy reductions, thus expanding the range of strategies & tactics from which we might propose when engaging with people, the ones who choose.See More

Linda Wigington distinguished between deep retrofits & deep energy reductions, thus expanding the range of strategies & tactics from which we might propose when engaging with people, the ones who choose.See More

Linda Wigington distinguished between deep retrofits & deep energy reductions, thus expanding the range of strategies & tactics from which we might propose when engaging with people, the ones who choose.See More

"San Mateo County is having a Zero Net Energy workshop on Friday, 5/29/2015, for homeowners. This all day workshop is a great value at only ten dollars! Ann Edminster is the keynote speaker. I will be sharing my learning on Midori…"

Linda Wigington distinguished between deep retrofits & deep energy reductions, thus expanding the range of strategies & tactics from which we might propose when engaging with people, the ones who choose.See More

Linda Wigington distinguished between deep retrofits & deep energy reductions, thus expanding the range of strategies & tactics from which we might propose when engaging with people, the ones who choose.See More

Linda Wigington distinguished between deep retrofits & deep energy reductions, thus expanding the range of strategies & tactics from which we might propose when engaging with people, the ones who choose.See More

Linda Wigington distinguished between deep retrofits & deep energy reductions, thus expanding the range of strategies & tactics from which we might propose when engaging with people, the ones who choose.See More

Linda Wigington distinguished between deep retrofits & deep energy reductions, thus expanding the range of strategies & tactics from which we might propose when engaging with people, the ones who choose.See More

Linda Wigington distinguished between deep retrofits & deep energy reductions, thus expanding the range of strategies & tactics from which we might propose when engaging with people, the ones who choose.See More

Linda Wigington distinguished between deep retrofits & deep energy reductions, thus expanding the range of strategies & tactics from which we might propose when engaging with people, the ones who choose.See More

Make Yours a Transition Business (or wish you had)

We are to face and move forward, taking considered steps and engaging authentically with the lives around us. This is to live in process and participate in creation. No alternate ways combine life affirmation and life enhancement so well.

Begin to learn about Meaningful Makeovers from Applied Ecologics, an opportunity to diversify your business, and make it more resilient, here (another ning-based community) or here, on Facebook. Join the site and request membership in the group, like the page or simply contact David Eggleton.

Comment Wall (8 comments)

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Sure, look me up when you come to CA (my wife is actually visiting family in Brookline MA this week).

Do you have a Transition initiative back there? I facilitate the website for our local Transition Sonoma Valley group. We just had a big "convergence" event with all the local permaculture folks (but I didn't get to go).

Thanks, David. I am new to the site, but I recognize many names from various energy spheres and have enjoyed your comment threads. My journey with permaculture is just beginning, but I have my sleeves rolled up in an ongoing "laboratory" at my parents' urban oasis, spearheaded by my younger brother, Matti, who is really my best resource. This spring, the 3/4 acre soccer field I grew up playing on became a gigantic spiral raised bed, orchard (pecan, persimmon, pawpaw, plum, apple), pond, and wetlands. We're building a greenhouse this fall with slavaged barn beams and old storm windows. With the drought we've had in Ohio, it's amazing to see our yard become a haven for wildlife we've never seen in our yard before. Matti, a recent sculptor graduate, is totally cool with living back at my parents', riding is bike (and scooter) around town, making connections for free materials, and rallying the family together around a common project. We've all started to re-skill ourselves, too, flashing the dormers, tuck pointing the chimneys, insulating kneewalls, preparing green smoothies. It's so cute, it's disgusting.

Our big question that we are looking to answer is whether anyone is "permaculturing" for a living? Is everyone just getting certified to become certifiers? Or are they getting certified on the side of their "real" job? Or are they retirees dabbling in permaculture but living off their professor's pension? Not that there is anything wrong with these lifestyle choices, but we so often see permaculture spoken of as a panacea for many social ills while the examples of "permaculturists" are incongruous with the hype. I certainly look foreward to learning from others' examples. It's been a humbing process so far.

I've also found a lot of inspiration also from the work of friend Pat Murphy in Yellow Springs, Ohio. He's the author of "Plan C" as well as the producer of the documentary "The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil". They've been incredible and essential resrouces, like permaculture, for challenging me to think in new ways-- in terms of systems and resilliency and values.

I am so happy to find someone else on this sight that believes right relationships with the Earth are most important and that modern technologies are not going to save us, but maybe, a re-envisioning of ancient technologies with modern engineering could put us on the path.

Thanks for the welcome David. I'm looking forward to how this will unfold, though still figuring out the site and how one communicates. I will think about some possibilities for the Resources section, and surely be in touch. Nickie

David, if you are still interested in the science/religion debate, do you mind "listening" to some ideas that have been rattling around in my brain lately? Here goes, ready or not:

I think being religious is part of being human. Ever since the beginning of written language ("In the beginning was the Word"), human beings have aspired to something greater in the future that we can achieve if we work toward it in the present. We've called it heaven, nirvana, a million dollars, a billion dollars, fame, a Pulitzer Prize, Buddha consciousness, a world without disease, a world without nuclear weapons, a world without religion, and many other things. We all, atheists alike, aspire for a better world; a world that doesn't yet exist; an "other" world. Marin Buber, a philosopher, wrote that we begin life looking at the world around us as an object to control, and that if we grow we come to recognize the world as the mysterious other that we can't control, but we can try to understand. He summarizes the movement as moving from an "I, It" relationship (the world as object) to an "I, Though" relationship (the world as other, and loveable).

I think religion is the way we communicate that most basic desire. In this case it is hard to separate religion from so called "secular" culture. Culture, like religion, embodies our desires (for justice, for belonging, for nurture, for everlasting life...) and our values.

The problem I think is when we think our religion is superior to other religions, or that our religion is the "right" one and the others are all wrong. Atheists, fundamentalist Christians, Jews, and Muslims, free market fundamentalists, communists, and others in I think are most prone to this kind of thinking.The solution to the problem is or us to discover that basically we all want the same thing.

I wish we didn't need religion, but we do ("I came not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it.")